Thomas Schröder, Vice President of the German Nature Conservation Ring/President of the German Animal Welfare Association, comments on the German government's withdrawal from the International Council for Game and Wildlife Conservation (CIC):
“The move apparently initiated by the Federal Ministry of Agriculture is absolutely to be welcomed from an animal welfare and nature conservation perspective. We congratulate Federal Minister Özdemir for recognizing the signs of the times and rejecting one-sided exploitation interests. In recent decades, the CIC has always opposed improvements in nature and species conservation and torpedoed reforms to hunting laws or the import of hunting trophies. Even restrictions on the trade or hunting of endangered and strictly protected species such as polar bears, elephants and rhinos have been repeatedly rejected by the CIC. In this respect, it is right and important that the German government does not allow itself to continue to be instrumentalized for such lobbying interests of the hunting community.”
